Dimitar Berbatov has one of the best touches in Premier League history, but he didn’t master his skill in the conventional way.
That’s because the former striker didn’t have a football to practice with when he was growing up in his native Bulgaria in the 1980s, under the Bulgarian Communist Party, and early 1990s.
Fast forward to 2024, and the Premier League title winner certainly has a career to reminisce on – and his humble start makes it all the more special.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s The LineUp, the 43-year-old said: “We did not [have a football] because we didn’t have money for a football. Somewhere we had a basket ball, which was a heavy ball.
“There were stories of young players who wanted to master their touch, and nobody told me to do that, I just felt I needed to do it with a basketball.
“I started as a small child, throwing it in the air and controlling it with my feet. Control, control. And that’s how I mastered my touch.”
Berbatov used another even more unusual item to practice his touch after the basketball, too.
“After the basketball, which one day just disappeared, I used a pig’s bladder. We had a tradition back home on a specific holiday, we would slaughter a pig,” he explained.
“It was a big meal with relatives. But when you slaughter the pig, you take out the bladder.
“My dad was like ‘come here, you want a ball? I’ll give you a ball’. So you take the bladder of the pig, blow it up, it becomes like a ball.
“But it was slimy so I needed to make it more stable! So then we put clothes around it to make it more stable, and now we have close to a proper ball!”
Berbatov’s practice with makeshift footballs earned him a place at his home-town club Pirin, before a move to CSKA Sofia at the age of 17-came in 1998.
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He signed for Bayer Leverkusen in 2001 and was part of the squad beaten by a Real Madrid and Zinedine Zidane materclass before joining Tottenham for £10.6million in 2006, making him the most expensive Bulgarian footballer at the time.
The striker won the League Cup with Spurs in 2008, earning him a blockbuster move to Manchester United for a then-club record fee of £30.75million.
Two Premier League titles and two more League Cup wins followed, and Berbatov ended his career with Fulham, Monaco, PAOK and then Kerala Blasters.
Reflecting on his career, Berbatov says growing up in difficult circumstances made him even more determined to succeed.
“It was not easy, but everyone has a story of a difficult up bringing or whatever,” he said.
“Back home we were getting out of [the communist regime] so it was not easy for us as a family.
“But when you’re a small kid, your family present it to you as a game. You know, ‘go wait in line at 6am because we’re going to play a game’. Actually you’re waiting in line for bread.
“When you are in the situation, you don’t appreciate it enough because your family try to make sure you’re not seeing how you’re making money.
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“When you look back, you start to appreciate it even more. Growing [up] at home was probably harder than growing [up] in England, or other countries.
“But that’s what made us hungry. Me, specifically to achieve my dream which was to play football at the highest level possible. I wanted to go out of my country and be a foreigner, but try to be part of the locals and show I can be part of you guys.
“Just give me a chance and I can show you.”
He did that and more.
Watch the full episode of the LineUp on talkSPORT’s YouTube channel
